Let Them Eat Compute: Computer Says Maybe Climate Week Livestream
Hearing a lot about AI and data center expansion? That it's happening quickly, behind closed doors, putting huge demands on strained energy grids, leading to rising utility costs, reversing climate progress, and draining water from communities?
Maybe you're also questioning the future we're all being locked into via this AI-fueled infrastructure expansion? Yeah, us too.
At Climate Week, we’re bringing together the voices that are fighting on the frontlines of the AI data center boom: for their communities, their water, their air, and all our futures.
The show will be livestreamed on our YouTube channel, and we’ll share the recording afterward for anyone whose timezone doesn’t align. RSVP above to receive the livestream link, and we’ll make sure you get the recording too.
You’ll hear from speakers from around the US as they share their stories of local communities trying to wrestle control of their destinies from big tech companies:
KeShaun Pearson (Memphis Community Against Pollution) will break down how Elon Musk’s xAI supercomputer is polluting the air of historically Black neighborhoods in Memphis, and how organizers are fighting back against yet another chapter of corporate extraction in their communities
Marisol (No Desert Data Center) will share about their grassroots coalition’s recent win in Tucson to stop Amazon’s Project Blue data center proposal, which threatened the city’s scarce water supply, and how they’re organizing for future protections.
KD Minor (Alliance for Affordable Energy) will demystify the energy impacts of data centers in Louisiana and share organizing strategies to mobilize community opposition to Big Tech and Big Oil infrastructure.
Amba Kak (AI Now Institute) will talk us through the bigger picture: what’s behind Big Tech’s AI data center expansion, who stands to benefit from this boom, and what we sacrifice in return.
About The Maybe
The Maybe is a media studio, consultancy, and collective dedicated to challenging the power and politics of tech. Computer Says Maybe is our weekly podcast hosted by Alix Dunn.
Thank you to Luminate for sponsoring! Luminate is a global foundation working at the intersection of technology, social justice and human rights.